Today,
many information system and marketing departments are still justifying
the cost of the web site but slowly smarter executive management is
realizing that an Internet presence is now mandatory, rather than a
luxury. As attitudes within organizations change, so does the focus of
the business Internet presence. With the increase of consumer oriented
sights and electronic commerce the need for marketing savvy on the
Internet grows. Minorities now comprise between 27% and 32% of the US
population depending on whose figures you use. Companies can no longer
afford to alienate or worse yet, forget these distinct but significant
segments of the population. Nowhere can this be more dramatically seen
than in the African-American population.
The
baby boomers have come to power and a fundamental shift in the style of
marketing has been necessitated. The baby boomers are a more
sophisticated and discerning group of consumers than marketing
departments have ever seen before especially the African-American baby
boomers. Statistical reports show us that the high school graduation
rate has continued to climb over the past three decades and now stands
at 86% for both black and white males. Female high school graduation
rates follow closely at about 81% and 88% for black and white females
respectively. African-American college completion levels are at an all
time high too. Four-year college degrees are held by over 15% of the
black population and graduate degrees by 1.5%. This highly educated and
culturally diverse segment of the population tends to view products with
an acute awareness of the presentation as well as the product that
previous generations lacked.
The
reasons for having a minority or an African-American marketing program
are simple. Products marketed to the right people sell. Figures released
by the US Department of Commerce in 1996 show that African-Americans
comprise approximately 34 million people or 12.8% of the total
population. The Black population has grown faster than either the total
or White population since the 1980 decennial census. African-Americans
as of 1995 earn a median income of $25,970 and as a group had personal
income of 367 billion dollars in 1996. Personal income has consistently
grown faster for blacks than any other racial group in the United
States. This continued growth is giving blacks increasing influence over
the economy. Imagine if African-Americans were a separate nation, they
would be one of 25 or so most important world economic powers.
African-American population and economic demographics continue to show
that they are the largest and fastest growing segment of the population.
With this kind of purchasing power, no sane businessman can afford to
just ignore the African-American population.
For
the first time, The U.S. Commerce Department's 1996 annual consumer
spending survey, asked about spending for online services and found that
blacks represent 25 percent of the total spent last year on on-line and
Internet access. The increasing growth of the black middle and upper
class have helped blacks gain new levels of affluence and make great
strides toward a more equitable financial position within the US
economy. These same households are keenly aware of the importance of
technology to their children. It is estimated that 30% of the children
under the age of 16, surfing the web are African-American. Computer and
Software purchase are also on the rise in the African-American
community. Statistics gathered suggest that black spending on computer
hardware and software has doubled every year since 1993, totaling over
740 million in 1996. At the same time, black household spending on
consumer electronics rose 18 percent to $3.8 billion.
Marketing
departments and personnel must be aware of constantly changing
population demographics. Companies who fail to look at the cultural
appeal of their product often fold as quickly as they got started or
have products that fail miserably in the market place. Add to these
complex and diverse markets the complications of on-line and interactive
marketing and the problem expands and magnifies itself a hundred fold.
As
Internet marketing professionals, it is our duty to make our customers
aware of all the opportunities available to them. For far too long we
have ignored the minority market or condescended to them with specific
sites that are blatantly racially oriented. As part of the US minority
community the African-American is definitively one of the more educated
and astute consumers. Marketing professionals must be aware of their
sensibilities and make adjustments in style or content appropriately.
Marketing on the Internet to date has consisted primarily of selecting
the right mix of appropriate graphics, aesthetic backgrounds, borders
and politically correct text then strategically placing them on a page
for publication on the WWW. Now, however we must be acutely aware of the
sensibilities of those we reach on the Internet. There are several areas
where minority and especially African-American marketing must be
accounted for and considered.
The
decrease in the cost and increase in sophisticated technology has given
us more sophisticated images to use. Any individual with a $100 scanner
can scan in a picture and using one of the multitude of low cost picture
editing programs, manipulate it dramatically. Gone are the days of
cartoon style clip art and canned graphic image libraries. As we
diversify the content of our web sites, we must be aware of the cultural
significance of the images we use. Family pictures of middle class
America can engage one population segment and put off another. Images of
confederate flags and other racist symbols can illicit unwanted
responses and signal the doom of your product or effort. Other less
obvious symbols, styles and icons can be just as disastrous. This is
best illustrated by a self-help home renovation web site that no longer
exists. The site was meant to be cute, but the ram shackled shack and
other dilapidated items that were used, as icons, were offensive to many
black people from the south. Hundreds of people sent mail about the
perceived problem with the site, but the company was unwilling to pay to
have the site updated. Since this business was located in the south,
they effectively isolated a large portion of their customers due to this
unresponsive attitude to the concerns of the customer base. The business
finally pulled the web site all together but it was too late the damage
had been done. The African-American customers organized a boycott of
the store and eventually put them out of business.
The affects of positive and culturally based marketing in today's
market can bring immediate results. Companies seeking full market
penetration or cultural product appeal must be aware of the impact these
changing demographics have had. Chrysler has had one of the most
successful minority campaigns in the US. Chrysler has increased its
share of the African-American market by over 30% since 1994. This growth
in the minority market and specifically the African-American market has
outpaced its share of the general market by over 1.5%. The growth has
been attributed to better product lines but is primarily attributed by
Chrysler to a more specific advertising campaign concentrating on age,
race and lifestyle in certain urban markets designed in consultation
with an African-American marketing firm. This market segment now
accounts for over 25% of all Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth sales.
In
business-to-business marketing, we often forget about the sensibilities
of our audience because we are dealing with other businesses. This can
no longer be done. African-American businesses continue to gain in
influence and increase their business buying power by an average of 30 %
per year for the last decade. In 1996 this amounted to approximately 40
billion dollars in African-American business receipts. The number of
black businesses also continues to increase. In 1996 there were over
650,000 black owned businesses in the US. Blacks also had the highest
number of business start-ups nationwide for the third straight year. Can
a business afford to ignore such a large portion of the business
community? I think not.
With these dramatic increases in both income and business buying
power comes the need for marketing and advertising focused directly
toward the African-American markets. Many of the traditional marketers
to the African-American community are no longer welcome. Several
cigarette manufacturers have always focused a large part of their
advertising budgets towards the African-American population to the
dismay of the black medical community. A number of alcoholic beverages
much to the chagrin of many in the African-American community have for
the last three decades or so focused either part or all of their
advertising towards African-Americans. Boycotts and court injunctions
as well as educating the African-American population have resulted in a
lessening of the impact of this negative marketing. Cigarette smoking is
on the decline in the black population as it is in the general
population. Sales of alcohol, especially of the target-marketed brands,
are on the decrease in the black community. This type of stereotypical
marketing will no longer work on the larger portion of African-American
citizenry.
We must be aware of the sensibilities of our marketplace. It may not
be appropriate to cater to any one segment but neither is it right to
offend another. As marketing professionals we must double check what is
considered taboo culturally and ethnically. If we cannot develop the
expertise, we need in house to accomplish the task then we must seek
outside expertise. Having a marketing plan or campaign reviewed for
racial or minority considerations may seem extreme but losing one out of
ten, customers would be worse. As we move our marketing efforts to the
Internet we must make sure that not only are our words correct but that
our graphic presentations whether icons, backgrounds, or pictures, do
not offend either. With the African-American Internet population at an
ever growing 5% of the total Internet population, but representing a
much larger percentage of the US home Internet users community,
approximately 25% this segment can ill afford to be forgotten. As the
black middle class expands and increases its buying power, we must
recognize the sensibilities of this population segment. Minority
marketing must become a norm and not an afterthought.
Joel M. Arrington, SABLE Systems
Copyright 1998. No reproduction without permission.
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